Happens
by Jemennuie
Summary: Dean is strolling along Diagon Alley when he sees a sandy-haired boy - man, really - that he barely recognizes anymore and approaches him.


_Mystical Moons_,_ Mystical Moons_, Dean mutters under his breath. _Mystical Moons: Your Textbook Guide to the Galaxy's Moons_, he repeats, determined not to forget the book's name. _Mystical Moons. Mystical. Moons_. Written by…well, someone. Dean idly hopes the title will be enough as he continues walking along Diagon Alley's cobblestones.

He is so engrossed in his thoughts, that he barely notices a sandy-haired man staring at him. "Dean? Dean Thomas?" the man says uncertainly, and Dean gazes at the man's face, trying to place its familiarity somewhere between flying and quaffles and red and gold and inky parchment and harried sketches. He's trying to sift through flashes of his life in an attempt to place the face, but it's almost like the face itself morphs as he looks at it-it's identity is that uncertain and Dean waves away the idle artists' thoughts that continually circle through his mind the _what if he moved the nose here?_ or _curved the eyes like this?_ or _used these colors?_ because as far he's concerned Picasso had the right idea about faces.

"Seamus. From Hogwarts?" the man hesitatingly offers and the flash of recognition is _there_ and Dean has to keep himself from clapping his hands over his mouth in embarrassment because, Merlin, _he didn't recognize Seamus._

"You—er—look different with a beard," Dean meekly offers, vaguely gesturing in the direction of Seamus's chin.

Seamus gives a deep chuckle of a laugh, and it doesn't sound like Seamus at all, not Seamus who giggled at the Weasleys' pranks, Seamus who roared in laughter at _The Quibbler_, Seamus whose wheezy laughs frequently filled the common room. "What brings you to Diagon Alley?" he offers with another jovial chuckle and it's all wrongwrongwrong.

"I'm supposed to buy a book for my daughter. It's called—" dang it, what _was_ it called? "Well, uh, it's called something. It's for her NEWT-level Astronomy class. What about you?" he explains, and somehow the small-talk has never sounded so stale in his mouth.

"Meeting up with a good friend of mine from Gryffindor. I mean, well, uh," he hesitates as soon as the words escape his mouth and Dean's not sure who to be more embarrassed for, because if there's anyone who's "a good friend from Gryffindor" to Seamus it ought to be Dean, except clearly it's not. "Neville Longbottom, you remember him?" Seamus hastily offers.

"Yeah, I remember Neville. I didn't know you two were ever more than just roommates," he slowly replies, a vague memory of Seamus-the-Third-Year calling Neville an annoying twat swirling to mind.

"Not until my 7th year, really. The Carrows were really harsh on both of us, and it's just the sort of thing that bonds you for life, y'know?" Dean blinks because, no, he doesn't know, and he's starting to remember how the occasional letters he and Seamus exchanged after the war became less and less frequent until one day the loopy, illegible handwriting of Seamus simply faded from his mind.

Seamus looks down at his feet, scuffing one of the cobblestones with his toes. Dean thinks that he, too, must be remembering the long-ago letters before he realizes he's not sure if he can still claim the privilege of understanding Seamus's body language. Seamus is holding his hand against his neck now, looking up and away and Seamus isn't meeting his eyes and he barely hears Seamus whisper, "Merlin, Dean, what happened to us? We used to be best friends."

Dean feels his face flush again because it's true, but it's not the type of thing he ever expected to have to say aloud. "I don't know."

"Listen—" Seamus starts again and he's looking Dean in the eyes and his posture has straightened and his voice is louder and more confident and he continues—"Why don't you come along with me to go see Neville? And maybe our two families can get together sometime and have dinner or something."

Dean's face breaks into a smile. A second chance to be friends. "I'd like that."

…

A/N: This was written for IfweDieYoung's "What Happened to Us?" Challenge over at the HPFC. I was given Dean and Seamus and had to have them meet in Diagon Alley. Also, I think my brain got whiplash from writing this because I literally switched from writing a fluffy-DE piece to this, back to the fluffy-DE piece XD

Constructive criticism always appreciated!


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